This event will determine a team's ability to design, conduct, and report the findings of an experimental actually conducted on site.

Fermi Questions

Academic

Teams provide answers to a series of "Fermi Questions"; science related questions that seek fast, rough estimates of a quantity, which is either difficult or impossible to measure directly. For example, the question "How many drops of water are there in Lake Erie?" requires an estimate of the volume of a drop, the volume of Lake Erie from its approximate dimensions and conversion of units to yield an answer. The answers should be an estimate within an order of magnitude recorded in powers of ten.

Teams must design, build, and test a vehicle using one or two snap mousetraps as its sole means of propulsion to quickly push a plastic cup forward a Cup Target Point, reverse direction, and come to a stop at the Vehicle Target Point, a specified distance behind the Start Point.